5. Neon Gumbo

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Hi, I’m back again. You’ll notice I deleted the diary posts. I decided to keep this blog more on the fiction end of things and I figured 30 days of real – life would spoil that plus I’m supremely lazy about diaries and such. 🙂

I had had quite a number of my dreams with Violet Stars, and Aya and I finally found a clue on Neon Valley Street – more like a legend actually, of purple stars that lit ‘the way to love’ to the ones that Mother Fate found favor in. It really is the reason why Neon Valley Street looks the way it does with Pre-Pangaea Romantic era buildings from many of the old cities – Paris, New Orleans, Lima lining the streets on both sides and a ‘period’ club every few blocks.

I started studying the legend and visiting the street at various times trying to find the legendary lights – my music programming pulled me to believe the more fantastical facets of this legend and ‘dream’ a little while my ever analytic mind was more concerned with the statistics of it all. In 2 years, I had spoken to hundreds of people trying to get more details about this legend and its origin but I got nothing tangible and gave up on my search entirely.

Luckily, I could turn to music as my ability had begun to improve during that time and I was fortunate enough to have performed at some small gigs at many clubs around.

Lady Maxxa became a patron and I had a regular show at her Axxa restaurant. It was a wonderful experience, people stopping me in the streets once in a while for photographs and such. My sets became quite popular in elite circles because Lady Maxxa hosted these themed events around them.

This brings me back to this ‘feeling’.

One of such events had a ‘Graffiti Love’ theme where guests were supposed to come dressed in romantic era clothes with a dash of rainbow and the old world culture. As a result, laboratories saw a spike in people demanding DNA research into their Pre – Pangaea origins so as to pick the right costume. The designers became so consumed programming custom designs for people to wear that it unconsciously affected the trends in their prêt-à-porter collections as well.

I chose a mix of Nigerian and Indian influences since my Bioroid design was influenced by Sir Anthony Greendown’s and Proffesor Towlin’s wives who were Neo-Nigeran and Bharati respectively. I had picked up the Bharati accessories that I wanted and was browsing around a Neo – Nigera outfit store near Neon Valley street when I bumped into him.

“Oh! I’m so sorry”, I said. Struggling to make sure I didn’t tip over from the weight of the fabric in my hands. He knelt down and helped me pick up the fabrics and swatch book that fell.

“Daijobu desu, it’s alright”, he replied in Nipponi

I laughed; it was a running joke between us to use Nipponi in conversation as a nod to the first time we met.

We laughed and joked. Turns out he was attending Lady Maxxa’s Graffiti event as well and had come shopping. As always with Anthony, we fell into our usual pattern of conversation and decided to stop at a nearby café for tea.

That’s when I first noticed; my data processor slowed down on the constant stream of information it usually analyzed. I was calmer, serene really and just enjoying being with him. I would once in while fidget with my hair and when his hand touched my mine my heart would speed up for a few seconds and calm down again.

I struggled to process these ‘feelings’. I understood a human would classify them as love but I knew from months spent on research and perhaps my own innate programming, that no such thing existed in Cyborgs and as a Bioroid based on the same design, I didn’t expect anything else.

Two weeks later found me on stage at the ‘Graffiti Love’ event and the band and I had started with more mellow retro tunes from the 2000’s. The plan was to build up to 2715 and then continue with a few of my own compositions.

As usual the designers at Feriga had outdone themselves with my costume complete with a mask – it was a masterpiece that blended the old Nigerian and Indian styles well. I danced and sang and stopped between sets to meet the guests and have some food. It was a mixer for Metropolis’ elite from various industries who came to have a nice fun break and strengthen business connections.

I was back on stage and somewhere in the middle of a song by Jamie DeKurohan from 2699 when he walked in. It seemed like I was the only one that noticed him as he struggled through dancing guests and eager business partners to make his way to the front. He looked handsome as always and my system began with the ‘symptoms’ that I had gotten used to.

I had just turned away from him when I first saw the lights.

The legendary lights of Neon Valley Street – it was just one at first but soon the entire room lit up with them and they danced around as I launched into a number from 2713 and kept on dancing. It was strange, the glowing orbs of violet moving around and very near the faces of the guests and yet no one seemed to notice apart from me. I kept singing and watched as the brightest of the lot began to move towards me until it was inches away from my face. My line of sight was filled with bubbling lights that reminded me of a pot of soup coming to boil. I had started a song from 2714, one of mine actually, when they slowed down and came to a halt and started disappearing slowly in time with the music until there was only one, the brightest, left. When that disappeared, I found myself staring at him.

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Published by Jade

6 Comments

Glad you placed the link to part 2 in this post. Brilliant stuff. Lights, Bioroid emotions or frequencies of randomly generated bytes of information which in truth add nothing to productivity but produce a welcome and unexplainable feeling within a non sentient being. Somehow I feel Isaac Asimov would find this series intriguing. 🙂